I have been trying G.Skill F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL RAM (2x4GB) with an Intel DZ68DB board. By default, this board is running the RAM at DDR 1600, CAS 9-9-9-28, 1.5V. The system seems stable when running, but it has booted up spontaneously a few times, after a full shutdown.

Two SATA drives are connected to the board, along with a wireless keyboard/mouse and a USB wifi adapter, with a tested power supply. I have not yet tried removing any components. Memtest86+ v4.20 showed no memory errors after 2 full passes. I tried configuring the RAM as DDR 1333 and 8-8-8-24, but it mostly failed to POST with those settings. The CPU isn't overclocked. Could the spontaneous booting be caused by the combination of this RAM and board? Is there a failsafe configuration?

I neglected to add that I am using an Intel Core i5-2500k processor with this motherboard. I have no graphics card attached, only using the graphics on the CPU. I did upgrade the Intel BIOS to the latest 0014 version before starting this thread and it had no effect on the spontaneous booting. The computer is always turning itself on after a full shutdown, if left for several hours. Currently I unplugged all components from the motherboard except the DVI-D monitor and the wireless receiver for the keyboard/mouse, leaving the 2x4GB G.Skill RAM, to see if the problem persists.

An Intel tech support agent told me yesterday that this DDR 1600 memory would eventually damage the memory controller in the Core i5-2500k CPU and that the memory could be causing the spontaneous booting problem. They said to consult the manufacturer regarding possibly running the RAM at DDR 1333. I'm looking for advice on this before considering returning this RAM.

P.S. The tested power supply is a new COOLER MASTER Silent Pro M600 RS-600-AMBA-D3 600W.

Additional troubleshooting information: after unplugging all components except for the monitor and USB wifi keyboard/mouse receiver, the system was in total shutdown state starting at 9 am today. At around 12 pm today, it spontaneously turned itself on again. Now I have shut it down again and unplugged the last two components (monitor and USB wifi receiver) for additional testing.

Update: The computer turned itself back on around 1:20 pm today, after another full shutdown around 12:50 pm. Then, as has happened previously, it would not shutdown more than a few seconds before starting up again on it's own. Next I will remove one memory module, but can't do that until this evening.

Test one module at a time to see if one performs differently than the other.

I have done this and tested with eath module separately and the issue persists with both, no difference - the computer is spontaneously booting all the time, this afternoon/evening not staying off for more than a few seconds unless the power is killed at the power supply. I also tested with several other RAM settings with no difference. I'm out of ideas.

Thanks for the reply. I did have another perfectly good, 5-year old 500W Antec NeoHE power supply and so far in testing with that with both G.Skill RAM modules, I am not having the spontaneous startup issue. I'll continue testing but this issue may have been caused by a faulty new power supply.

Though the spontaneous startup issue seems to be gone with the alternate power supply, the BIOS was not booting up reliably with the RAM set to 1333 8-8-8-24. Also, on a reboot, the computer was sometimes turning itself off for a few seconds, then back on again. With the RAM set back to defaults of 1666 9-9-9-28, these issues disappeared.

However, sometime in recent days I have lost sound, whereas it was working less than a week ago. I did not have speakers attached, only headphones, but have tested with speakers and headphones, only getting white noise now. BIOS settings are defaults, audio is detected by the OS and all audio drivers are loaded, as before when I had sound. Motherboard front panel audio connections look fine. Motherboard issue?